You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching,

-William W. Purkey

IX | NO REPLY

A small frown was set on my face as I entered into my house. I walked up the stairs, headed straight to my room. Not even bothering to check if Gwen or Thomas were still around. I laid on my bed exhausted, my comforter wrapped around me as a slight headache was starting to form. I rubbed my aching head and stood up to remove my clothes, pulling on my nightwear. I went to my vanity table and grabbed a scrunchie, putting my hair up into a tight bun.

My mind was focused only on Reece, of course I was worried, I wasn't too sure he was telling the truth about what was wrong. But ultimately it wasn't my place to ask, I was only his 'fake girlfriend'. I just had this gut feeling that he was in a tousle, or something bad happened and I couldn't ride off the feeling. This past week I've gotten to know the real Reece, not the one everyone thought they knew all about due to his popularity status, but rather the one I believe he hid from people.

I turned to my right and stared at my wall. Why the fuck was I so worried about him? It's not like I like him or anything. Because he's your friend and friends care about each other, I told myself. That had to be the reason as to why I was so worried.

I realized I wouldn't be able to sleep after about half an hour of tossing and turning, so I went downstairs instead, getting some cold chocolate milk out of the fridge.

My Mom was in the kitchen as I entered. "Hey Mom," I greeted.

"Hello Violetta, how was your day?" My Mom asked and I sighed fairly loud, pouring the chocolate milk into a glass. "Let me guess, boy drama, I knew that boy seemed way to perfect." My Mom muttered as if she knew it all.

"Really Mom?" I asked in disbelief. I thought she would insult Reece, but she's basically complemented him.

She shrugged, now wiping the kitchen counter with a clean rag, "I mean, it's very hard to find men like that, rich, good looking, wow - his accent is really a turn on. You should marry him!" I felt my stomach stir in revolt, did my Mom actually say she was turned on by Reece?

"Okay, first: never, I mean never use the words "turn on" and "Reece" in the same sentence, please. Second: I'm just concerned about him. He seemed really upset about something tonight." I looked pointless at my Mom, who gave me a sympathetic look.

"You really like him, don't you honey?"

I bit my lip, "um, sure?" I said like a question, rather than a statement.

My Mom smiled at me, "well, I have some advice for you, it's okay if your partner does not always want to tell you a problem, sure a relationship is all about communication, but it's also about time and space. He will tell you what's wrong when he is ready dear." Okay, maybe my Mom was awful when it came to cooking, but advice, she was much better at. "Goodnight."

"Night, Mom," I mumbled back as my Mother left me alone with my thoughts.

❁

Rays of sunlight hit my face, causing me to groan. I fluttered my eyes opened before closing them practically instantly, though thinking I saw a figure by the window, I reopened my eyelids, "Reece?" I asked groggily.

"Honey, what did you say?" I opened my eyes wider to see my Dad who stood by the window, not Reece. My Dad always opened my curtains in the morning. He squinted his eyes, "why would Reece be in your room?" He crossed his arms and gave me a stern, fatherly look.

I sat up on my bed immediately, "um, I was just guessing, that's all," I tried. He only stared at me a little longer before sighing.

"I'm leaving for work, but I'll be back later on, breakfast is on the table already and your mother made it. So pretend you actually like it, you already know the rules," he quickly kissed my forehead and left my room.

As soon as he left, my first thought was to message Reece.

Hey, hope everything is okay

I waited a few minutes, impatiently staring at my phone waiting for him to reply, but he didn't. I sighed as I quickly replied to Ronnie's message she had sent me an hour ago. I looked at the time to see it was quarter-to-twelve. I knew the wrestling match usually started around two, so I wasn't too late in getting up.

I lazily got off my bed and entered into the bathroom. I did my usual morning routine, before dressing in a pink crop top with blue jeans and creme sandals. I let my curly hair naturally flow down my shoulders and wore minimum makeup.

I grabbed my phone and purse afterwards, heading down the stairs to see Cole and Millie already eating breakfast and Gwen in the living room watching TV.

"Where's mom?" I asked Cole, who was playing with his undercooked bacon.

"Shower," he said, standing up, heading towards the cabinet to get cereal. I looked at Millie who was sat down on her chair, eating her apple sauce while watching Dora The Explorer on her propped up iPad.

The front door opened to reveal Chase and Ronnie walking in, "hey guys," Ronnie greeted everyone as Cole looked her up and down.

"Hey Ronnie, looking sexy as always," he winked and Ronnie scoffed, looking half disgusted.

"Scram kid. Once again Cole, you're way too young for me."

"Why? You're hot, I'm hot. I don't get what's wrong?" Cole pouted.

"I'm just too old for you," she shrugged.

Cole smirked, "you may be old, but not your pus--" before Cole could continue I slapped a hand over his mouth, causing Chase to laugh like crazy and Ronnie's face to turn into a mixture of horror and concern.

Gwen stood up from the couch, "all of you are disgusting," she muttered, walking past us and heading upstairs.

I glared at Cole removing my hand from his mouth, "that's really disgusting Cole," I scolded.

He shrugged, "just stating facts," he moved over to Millie, who was finished with her food and removed her from her high chair, walking with her up the stairs.

"Sometimes I think he just lusts over me, rather than loves, " Ronnie said as we walked over to my front door.

Chase scoffed, "please, if he was our age, you would so bang him."

"Can we please not talk about my little bother and Ronnie banging, thank you." I said as we headed for Chase's truck.

"Chase, you really need to get a new car, this one is getting old," Ronnie said, causing Chase to glared at her.

"I don't care," he snapped. I rolled my eyes at the two before opening my phone to see I had received a message from one of my Harry Potter group chat friends.

"Aww, they said the convention is canceled today because there was a food eating contest that went horribly wrong yesterday," I said sadly as we entered Chase's car.

"How bad?" Ronnie asked, sitting in the passenger seat.

"Really bad. Apparently a guy threw up at least thirty six of his burgers on the stage and on the walls," I informed, feeling disgusted at the images that popped up in my mind.

Ronnie shivered as Chase started the car, "thank God, the convention is always so boring," he mumbled.

"You're so lucky I don't have my wand right now or I would have cast a spell, either: Petrificus Totalus or Crucio on your ass." I growled angrily, causing both Ronnie and Chase to roll their eyes.

"Ugh, why does Laurianne not have to go to these things anyways?" Ronnie huffed in annoyance.

"Because I love her very much, and I know how much she hates wrestling." Chase said simply.

I scoffed "Also because she's angry at him for basically stating he fancies Coach Brenda." Chase glared at me through the rear-view mirror.

Ronnie smiled, "you can't blame him, she is good-looking. Assuming, I was either bisexual or gay, I would so have a crush on her."

"Both of you need serious and I mean serious help." I said.

My comment being ignored as Ronnie began to fan herself furiously, maybe a little bit too much. "Oh my gosh, Chase, your air conditioner doesn't even fucking work!" She complained, annoyed as she was trying to turn the knob for the air conditioner.

Chase scowled at Ronnie, "leave her alone!" he whined, obviously not happy Ronnie was touching his precious rusty car and insulting her.

Ronnie huffed, "one day I'm going to take this car to the junk yard and pay them to burn it," We all knew Ronnie had the power to do that.

Chase scoffed, "don't you dare Ronnie! Or I'll burn your Fashion Nova outfits all to the ground, until they're nothing more than ashes!" he threatened back. I blocked out their silly argument after that, still awaiting Reece to text me back.

After about thirty minutes of Ronnie and Chase arguing, we finally arrived at the stadium. Already a ton of people were here and eager for the event, all loud and excited. I was mostly eager for the food to be honest.

I groaned as I saw how long the line was already. We should have came here earlier.

The three of us walked towards the end of the line, I checked my phone again, desperately for an answer now.

Still freaking nothing.

Chase looked at me and frowned, "what's up?" He asked concerned, as we moved up the line a few paces.

I sighed, "Reece isn't returning my texts," I said sadly.

Chase immediately raised his hands, "this is a Ronnie situation, I am terrible at giving girly advice." Ronnie gave him a look.

"Chase, you being on this earth is terrible," she stated, and once again I blocked their child-like argument out. If there was such a thing called friendship therapy, those two definitely need to join.

Ronnie cleared her throat, "anyway V, I'm sure he will reply soon," she tried reassuring me, flipping her long brown hair as Chase typed to someone on his phone, probably Laurianne.

Fifteen minutes after we finally entered the stadium, finding our seats in the middle center, crowds bustling away in their groups.

I got out a tissue and some hand sanitizer from my purse, starting to clean the seat. Chase and Ronnie of course did not question this, considering both knew I was a neat freak when it came to seats I was sure plenty of people had sat on. I didn't want to do that at Starbucks with Reece, so I could escape him laughing at me.

Reece.

Ugh, I wanted to check my phone again so bad right now, but it would have made a noise if someone had texted me, I was just being impatient and stuck in a pit of worry. Which meant me checking my phone all this time waiting for him to text me back was pointless.

"I'll go get us some food," Chase shouted over the enthusiastic cheers and noise from the nearby crowds. Ronnie signaled 'okay' as people started to settle in. Chase came back with popcorn for all three of us and soda. We both thanked him as the match began. I had to look away when blood was spilt because that was really disgusting and made me nearly heave. Also, Chase was shouting basically in my ear, so I had to cover the ear nearest to him. I had been doing this exact same thing since I was thirteen, but then again, this was basically a best fried tradition now.

Two very long hours of wrestling passed, the match was finally over. I think my right ear was deaf now due to Chase's screaming.

"That match was sick," Chase commented, smiling as he started his car.

"Uh huh," I chose to respond since Ronnie looked like she wasn't going to say anything. Personally, even after doing this for three years with Chase, I still didn't know shit about wrestling. I didn't even bother to know their names, the only wrestler I knew was Mayweather and I think Dwayne Johnson also did wrestling before, see I suck at this.

Once we arrived back to my house, I was surprised to see's Reece car in parked in front of it. My face formed confusion.

"What's he doing here?" Ronnie asked as all three of us stepped out of Chase's truck.

"No idea," I responded truthfully, making my way towards Reece's car.

I walked over to the passenger seat and sat down, "Reece, are you okay?" I asked and he turned to me.

My eyes widened in shock, He had a black eye and busted lip.